Peacock’s ‘The ‘Burbs’ Set Design Struggles to Stay Real

Production designer Susie Mancini explains how Peacock’s 2026 series version of Joe Dante’s 1989 dark comedy had to reshape the familiar look of Universal’s Colonial Street—without losing the neighborhood’s true-to-life feeling.

There’s a moment in any neighborhood build where you can feel the set staring back. For Peacock’s 2026 series version of “The ‘Burbs,” that moment landed on Colonial Street—a place the production team knows far too well.

Series creator Celeste Hughey’s Peacock spin takes Joe Dante’s 1989 original dark comedy starring Tom Hanks and puts it into a contemporary story. In this new version. Jack Whitehall and Keke Palmer star in roles created by Tom Hanks and Carrie Fisher. with Palmer’s character’s staycation thrown off by suspicious new neighbors. In Peacock’s series, Whitehall and Palmer are newly married and relocating to his childhood town.

And making that neighborhood feel lived-in—rather than instantly recognizable—fell to series production designer Susie Mancini during IndieWire’s Craft Roundtables panel.

“The neighborhood was built out on ‘Colonial Street at Universal. which is used probably for 60 percent of our productions and TV shows. ’” Mancini said. “So that was the first challenge: ‘How do we make one of our sets different from what everybody has seen. whether they’ve known it or not. for many years?’”.

That challenge came with extra pressure because the location isn’t just a stand-in. Colonial Street is also where Joe Dante’s Universal movie shot in the summer of 1988. with Colonial Street serving as the film’s central cul-de-sac. Mancini described the work as a push-and-pull: change enough to feel new. but not so much that it stops feeling like a neighborhood.

“We had to do a lot of greenery, change as much as possible from the exterior of all these houses,” she said. “We had to do a lot of work that was not expected to make it different, but also to make it feel like also still just a neighborhood that doesn’t feel too elevated or too weird.”

Once the outside needed to hold that balance, the interiors had to do something else entirely. Mancini pointed to the houses inside the set as the next hurdle—finding a way to translate character into space.

“Then the houses inside, how do we give the personalities of these characters so that they’re somewhat inspired from the movie but it’s a different persona?” she said.

The sequence is pretty clear in Mancini’s description: Colonial Street’s familiarity created the first problem. and the solution was a two-part makeover—alter the exterior so it doesn’t read as the classic set. then reshape what’s inside so the new characters still feel tethered to the original story.

For viewers, that careful reworking is the difference between a tribute and a re-entry. Peacock is taking “The ‘Burbs” forward as a modern series. with Whitehall and Palmer relocating to his childhood town and suspicious neighbors turning everyday life sideways. On the Craft Roundtables panel. Mancini’s focus made the stakes feel practical: the set can’t simply look right—it has to feel like it belongs to this version of the neighborhood.

IndieWire’s TV Craft Roundtables is now streaming on @PBSSoCal and the PBS App as well as IndieWire.com and our social channels.

The 'Burbs Peacock Celeste Hughey Jack Whitehall Keke Palmer Joe Dante Tom Hanks Carrie Fisher Susie Mancini Craft Roundtables Colonial Street Universal TV production design